Loading...
Some microbes are linked to cancer: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is linked solidly to liver cancer, papillomavirus is linked solidly to cervical cancer, and Fusobacterium species might be linked to colon cancer (NEJM JW Gen Med Feb 15 2018 and Science 2017; 358:1443). However, infectious agents have not been thought to be involved in the pathogenesis of most cancers.
Researchers examined 33 types of cancer in tissues from more than 10,000 untreated cancer patients. The team used state-of-the-art statistical techniques to minimize the possibility of sample contamination, to distinguish human from microbial nucleic acids, and to avoid spurious associations. They found DNA and RNA from microbes (“microbial signatures”) for many cancers. These signat…